


The Sensation of Translation

by CaveDwellers



Series: Starry Eyed [4]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Gratuitous Smut, NC-17, Sex Toys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 12:10:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6116037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaveDwellers/pseuds/CaveDwellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Due to an unorthodox client, it's been a week and six days since she's had a proper conversation with Ruby, and Sapphire's starting to miss her best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sensation of Translation

**Author's Note:**

> I am combining a handful of dares into this fic. The first is a dare for an Exhibitionist Sapphire, the second is a dare to use a prop, and a third is to incorporate more vaginally induced orgasms into my erotica. 
> 
> Titled by a vote that went in favor of terrible puns. Alternate Title: The Much-Needed Ruby Appreciation Episode.
> 
> WARNING: This fic features gratuitously explicit sex, and it also features the use of of a strap on dildo. If sex toys make you uncomfortable in any way, then you probably don't want to read this. However, if you are not opposed to strap ons, you will be happy to hear that this fic has the [Sexual Safety Jasper](http://rhinocio.tumblr.com/search/Jasper) seal of approval! I've noticed that fanfiction doesn't tend to feature proper or safe conduct when it comes to things like strap ons, and I went out of my way to be as accurate as possible in my portrayal of proper use of this toy. If you notice anything that seems conspicuously out of place about this, please feel free to drop me a line! 
> 
> Insofar as the greater Starry Eyed storyarc goes, you're not actually missing much if you skip this installment due to discomfort with the sexual content. All this oneshot really does is check in with Ruby and Sapphire after a brief timeskip. You'll miss some fluff and emotion woven throughout the fic, and probably some of the ways their relationship has matured with time, but you're not actually missing plot. 
> 
> Enjoy!

 

It’s been one of those weeks, Sapphire thinks. Too many thoughts, never enough action. Never enough _time_ to act. Her division has been overrun by a last minute, high stakes client and, well, Sapphire can’t pass up on a challenge like this. She has too much pride, too big of a stomach for competition. These clients are picky, last minute bastards—the kind that you come to hate, if you’ve ever done any time in customer service—but this will test Sapphire’s will and efficacy under pressure. She’s been meaning to challenge herself, anyway; why not make that challenge a translation of Chapters 4 and 5 of a user’s manual for an advanced new technogadget from Chinese to English and Spanish in less than two weeks?

It shouldn’t have been this much work on one person, to be honest. There should have been a contract set for at least six months out, and a team of more than five translators working on it. Her department has recently been gutted, though (and the people who got axed hadn’t actually been _good_ workers, but still, a body is a body), so there isn’t really anybody to spare.

And the fact that fantasies have been running through her head in all of her free moments this last week is too bad, really, especially when she has no choice but to take her work home with her.

While she will occasionally make a pit stop at Sapphire’s desk in the living room to offer much-needed food or coffee, Ruby has basically left her to her linguistic hell. Sapphire becomes dimly aware of the passage of time when her live-in girlfriend of four years comes back from work or the gym, humming tunelessly as she goes about her day. Sometimes Sapphire will chortle to herself as Ruby curses at a video game from their bedroom. Other times, she’ll catch herself automatically issuing a rebuttal to Ruby’s casual quips about life and chronic exhaustion when she passes by on the way to the bathroom. Depending on where she is in a translation, sometimes the latter won’t come out in English because Sapphire can’t switch gears fast enough, but every time that happens Ruby just laughs and goes back to doing her own thing.

Tonight, Sapphire’s hand jerks to the side in the semblance of a wave when Ruby throws on a light jacket, stomps into her favorite boots, and calls something over her shoulder about getting dinner and drinks with their friends Xun, Zhi and An.

Sapphire feels like she also remembers saying “have fun” at that point, but maybe that was only in her head. Or she said it in Spanish. Hard to say.

Work comes first. Of course it does. This won’t last long in the grand scheme of things; she just has to keep powering through. It’s a good test of her stamina and will, honestly. Sapphire’s great at compartmentalizing her emotions and desires when she has to, and she hasn’t been pushed like this in a while. She likes to know she’s still at the top of her game.

Still, none of this stops her from using her free moments fetching coffee or going pee thinking about what she will get to do when all of this is said and done. Were her will any weaker, Sapphire thinks she might have given in to the urges a while ago.

She translates the chapters tirelessly, interrupted only by six-hour stints of slumber in which she drops onto the mattress next to where her partner is usually already softly snoring and doesn’t move until her alarm goes off and she has to haul herself up start all over again. She doesn’t leave the house, so she doesn’t bother with changing out of her pajamas or brushing her hair. She’s not interacting with anyone she’s trying to impress, and it’s not like either actually helps her work ethic at all; what’s the point?

It takes a week and six days before Sapphire can sit back and study her work for one last lingering moment before saving it a final time, just to be sure. She heaves a breath of triumph and tilts her head against the back of her chair, closes both working and prosthetic eyes.

This feeling of accomplishment is good, it’s true, but Sapphire also feels a little gelatinous from pushing herself so hard. It reminds her of finals week back in her last semester of college, all of that rush, rush, rushing about… for what? The sake of having said she’s done it? What is she trying to prove, and to whom?

Now that she’s here, on the other side of the project, Sapphire isn’t sure why the hell she was so determined to drive herself into a stupor getting it done at an unreasonably fast rate to begin with.

Honestly, all Sapphire wants to do now is relax. Well, she wants to be with Ruby, but Ruby’s still out with—

Wait, hold on.

Sapphire’s desk is stationed in the living room, under one of the apartment’s two windows. She gets a pretty good view of the Taipei skyline from the thirteenth floor, but typically her back is turned to the door to the apartment. She startles a bit when she hears a key in the lock—is Ruby back already? She spins about in her chair as the door opens, glancing briefly at the time on her laptop as she does so.

Well, it _is_ almost one in the morning.

“Hey Sapph, taking a break?” her partner says with an easygoing smile. Ruby kicks off her boots and drops her keys on the kitchen counter by the coffee pot.

It takes Sapphire’s brain a minute to stop and realign itself with the English language, and another pause for all of the appropriate syntax to click into place, but when it eventually does she says, “I finished, actually.” She flashes a somewhat sheepish grin. “Finally.”

“Hey, that’s awesome!”

Sapphire hums in agreement as Ruby’s jacket sloughs from her broad shoulders and over the backrest of one of the two chairs at their tiny kitchen table. “I’ll send it out in the morning after making some last minute edits, but I don’t think the latter will be too bad,” she says.

“Hell yeah, babe,” says Ruby supportively. She jerks her thumb towards the fridge in the kitchen. “Did you remember to eat? I can make you something.”

In all seriousness, just having this conversation is wonderful enough. Sapphire has missed her best friend these last two weeks.

Okay, this would be more than enough, if not for… well.

“Ruby, come here?”

Bless Ruby for being so easily sidetracked. Without so much as asking why, she walks straight into Sapphire’s open arms and stands between her seated knees. She also doesn’t seem to mind the way that Sapphire squeezes the round, firm muscles of her rear and tilts her head up for a kiss. She does, however, break away with a laugh when Sapphire starts tugging her into the chair with her.

“Sapph, I’m too heavy. It might break.”

Ruby is a darker shade of brown than Sapphire, but there is still a faint smattering of freckles over her nose and cheekbones. They’re at the corners of her honey brown eyes, too. Honestly you have to get pretty close to even see them, but Sapphire knows the location of every single one, and she loves them all.

“Not it won’t. Come here, I’ve missed you.”

It is precisely that easy to get Ruby into her lap. The shorter woman’s knees tuck into the back corners of the chair, and her thick thighs slowly relax as her weight settles over Sapphire’s legs. Her broad, warm hands slide over Sapphire’s shoulders, smoothing out the incidental rumples from her long sleeved shirt. Everything about Ruby is _strong_ , but there is something indescribably wonderful about having someone so powerful perched in her lap as gingerly as this.

Despite the delicacy of her body language, Ruby is grinning like she’s thinking of a new cheesy line to use. Sapphire braces herself for it, but all Ruby says is, “I haven’t actually gone anywhere.”

“But I haven’t been able to pay attention to you like I’ve wanted to, either.”

Ruby raises her eyebrows. “Oh, is that so? All that _hard_ work having some side effects?”

Sapphire thought she had braced herself for Ruby’s god awful sense of humor, but this innuendo has well and truly caught her off guard. She snorts loudly, and giggles despite herself. Still, she can’t resist taking bold handfuls of that beautiful ass and urging Ruby in until their torsos are pressed together and Sapphire has to tilt up her chin to look her in the eye.

It’s strange not being the tall one for once, but Sapphire thinks she likes it. It’s a fun change of pace.

“Would you be opposed?” asks Sapphire, interlocking her fingers above the curve of her lover’s rear and gazing up. She can’t help the soft smile that’s on her lips—she loves this position, this moment, even that shit-eating smirk on Ruby’s face. They’ve been coexisting in the same apartment these last thirteen days, but they haven’t really _interacted_ the way they have these last four years, and Sapphire is finding that she hadn’t been exaggerating by much when she said she missed Ruby. She feels that longing now, a keen ache that pulses behind her breastbone.

With a subtle ripple of muscle, Ruby rises up on her knees and braces her hands on the back of the office chair. She peers down with laughing honey eyes, framing Sapphire’s head with sculpted bare arms and wiry black curls. The tattoo encircling her left bicep—the words _stronger than you_ written in clear, bold font and interspaced with shaded-in stars—seems oddly prominent in the light from Sapphire’s desk lamp. She hums in a show of exaggerated, playful thoughtfulness. “I think I could be persuaded.”

“You’re such a shithead,” Sapphire informs her, albeit affectionately.

“Yeah, but I’m _your_ shithead.”

God, Sapphire loves seeing Ruby grinning at her like this.

Sapphire doesn’t reply verbally; she simply surges upwards to initiate a kiss. Ruby reacts with warmth and openness, her lips parting and her tongue a talented and familiar dance partner. She tastes like beer, and while she hasn’t said anything about it Sapphire thinks she knows where her significant other went with their friends. Only one place within reasonable walking distance has the beer that Ruby likes.

Ruby is stocky and firm, her hips and ribcage and shoulders all more or less the same width; everything about her is solid and grounding, ridged subtly with muscle definition from a life of more movement than down time. Sapphire can’t help how much she wants to trace it all with the barest tips of her fingers. She knows from their years together that Ruby’s skin always rises from the lightness of her touch, but she also never fails to soothe the sensation with a rub of her palms.

Sapphire _feels_ her partner hiss when her hands push under her form fitting tank top.

Honestly, sometimes it seems like the darker woman was built to withstand a nuclear winter without ever noticing the ice. Ruby’s body radiates heat like a furnace, and to someone like Sapphire, who is always, always chilly, gripping her from under the top and bringing her closer is like embracing the gentle warmth of the summer sun.

“How are you always this cold?” complains Ruby. You’d think she’d be used to it by now.

Sapphire’s hands travel up Ruby’s back, greedily absorbing both the texture and the warmth of her musculature. She ignores the disgruntled noise that this inspires and plants a small kiss on the angle of Ruby’s chin. “Because I’ve been waiting for you to make me hot, obviously.”

This actually earns her a laugh. “That was almost a pun, you know,” Ruby says. “Careful, Sapph, or you might start saying them all the time.”

“If I was going to start punning around, I think I probably would have done it by now.” They’ve been in a relationship for a little over five years, and living together for four. They have known each other even longer than that. The way Sapphire sees it, if she were going to cave then it would have happened already.

Sapphire realizes what she’s done the moment Ruby’s eyes flash. All she can realistically do is allow her significant other to lean in until the tips of their noses brush and whisper gleefully, _“That was a pun.”_

Sapphire doesn’t allow her to revel much more than that, though, choosing instead to lean up and kiss her again. Ruby doesn’t seem too bothered by this, merely steadies herself with an arm around Sapphire’s shoulders and the other leaning on the backrest of the chair as Sapphire grips just under her powerful shoulder blades and draws her in closer, closer.

Ruby is an expressive person. She pulls no punches with her emotions and opinions, and throws herself full-throttle into everything. While this character trait can lead to quite a few impassioned rants that you just sort of have to let her go on, it also means she kisses like she doesn’t think she’ll ever have the chance again. Even after all of the explicit and wordless declarations of commitment and affection, after even moving to a different country together, after _years_ of being known as a packaged unit, she kisses Sapphire like this is their first and last time—like she can’t get enough, but also like she wants to draw it out, make it last. It’s the casual way she goes from thorough, openmouthed kissing to drawing back and ever so lightly feathering their lips together, like this is as natural as the ebb and flow of the ocean tides. She always smiles when Sapphire subconsciously follows, bereft of sensation, already craving more.

When Ruby’s scarred left hand cups Sapphire’s cheek, Sapphire can’t stop herself from nudging deeper into the warm width of her palm. Their eyes meet as Ruby brushes her thumb over Sapphire’s kiss-swollen bottom lip, and the sheer _emotion_ in those dilated honey brown eyes is enough to make Sapphire’s gut coil and her heart clench. Her fingers flex where they are gripping her partner’s sides from under her top.

Sapphire’s voice is a little husky as she speaks, too many thoughts clogged in the back of her throat, but she still manages to say, “Take off your bra.”

Ruby blinks, and her demeanor becomes abruptly teasing, “What, not the whole thing? You aiming to stretch out my favorite shirt?”

“Do what you want with the shirt; I just want the bra gone.”

It’s amazing how cooperative Ruby can be when she feels like it. The next thing Sapphire knows, the tank top and underwire-free bra have been flung onto the couch and her partner is naked from the waist up. When they first got together Sapphire was surprised at how quickly and easily Ruby followed her breathy demands, but now it only serves as a massive turn on.

“Anything else?” It’s hard to tell whether Ruby’s still teasing, or she actually wants to be ordered about. Sapphire, who had been keeping a steadying hold on the shorter woman’s hips as she ripped her top off, splays her fingers out over the exposed brown skin now, touching appreciatively. As if they know what’s coming, Ruby’s nipples are already hardened little nubs, jutting proudly out, begging for attention. They are also, conveniently, right about level with Sapphire’s mouth.

“No, this is enough,” Sapphire says.

Ruby’s breasts are the softest part of her body. It’s a delicious contradiction to the firm, well defined torso Sapphire holds onto as she ducks her head just that little bit to trace an areola with the tip of her tongue.

This time, Ruby hisses for a whole new reason. Broad palms fall onto Sapphire’s shoulders as her partner’s sturdy torso presses in closer.

Sapphire doesn’t know how true the myth about smaller breasts being more sensitive is on a grand scale, being a C-cup herself, but she does know that it’s true for Ruby. One of her favorite things is having her breasts paid attention to. It’s quite rewarding, truthfully. Ruby is as expressive about showing her appreciation as she is with everything else, and the little noises that leave her throat when Sapphire gently suckles an erect nipple are nothing short of encouraging.

Ruby’s voice can pitch low and grating when she’s angry, but she usually has a pretty high timbre. Contrary to popular belief, the moans she issues are short, breathy little things, and they tend to go crack higher instead of lower whenever Sapphire does something she _really_ likes.

She issues a delectable squeak now as Sapphire reaches up to touch her other breast while still licking at the first. Sapphire, unable to help herself, grins and nips at the underside of a soft little mound. This earns her a throaty noise of appreciation, and she feels the grip on her shoulders tighten.

Most of Ruby’s wardrobe consists of mid-thigh denim shorts. Much like bras with underwires, she doesn’t believe in wearing full length trousers. “Too constraining,” she always says, “I like being able to _move_. _”_ She wears the cutoffs when she has to, or when she needs pockets, but if left to her own devices (i.e.: when her jacket can hold her wallet, phone and keys, or when Sapphire and a purse are around to carry them for her) Ruby tends to use spandex biker shorts instead. She is one of the only people Sapphire knows who is fit enough and confident enough to get away with using what essentially amounts to spanx as pants.

The biker shorts are also, conveniently, thin enough to tease through, especially when Ruby has also forgone underwear to avoid awkward panty lines.

Sapphire can already feel the humidity of the other woman’s arousal as she touches lightly between her muscular thighs. Ruby chokes back a noise, but it is quickly re-released as a tiny whine. “Sapph…”

There’s something about the way Ruby says her name that gives Sapphire pause. She cups her hand around the back of a powerful quad instead, looks up and takes the time to establish eye contact. She croons, “Yeah, baby? Is there something you want?”

“Oh, now who’s being the shithead?”

Sapphire laughs, but still manages to retort, “I don’t know how you expected me not to take advantage of this.” On ‘this’, she gives Ruby’s spandex-clad leg an appreciative pat.

“I’m just trying not to run out of underwear so I don’t have to do laundry this week— _I_ thought you’d still be working when I came home!”

Sapphire actually believes that. Ruby’s done it before. Still, though, her point remains.

“Surprise?” she tries.

Ruby snorts in laughter. She also meets Sapphire readily when she leans up to kiss her on the lips again. Sapphire melts into the contact, the grimly shouldered stress of the last couple of weeks fading more and more with every shared breath.

“I’ve been stupidly horny all week,” Sapphire confesses when they separate. She closes her eyes and noses against Ruby’s neck, softly kisses her pulse. “But there’s been so much going on I haven’t been able to act on any of it.”

Ruby lets out a little gasping moan when Sapphire reaches between her legs again. She doesn’t rub hard or fast, just gentle strokes along the radiating heat of her center, but she does apply enough pressure that the seam of the biker shorts add to the sensation of her fingers.

“I can tell.” Her breath hitches as Sapphire’s petting continues, and she makes a high pitched sound when Sapphire leaves an openmouthed kiss on her breast. The hands on Sapphire’s shoulders shift like they’re debating relocating themselves. “Not that I’m complaining, but how much of this is you acting on a frenzied work fantasy?”

Sapphire considers as she drags the edge of her teeth across an areola. Ever so lightly, she draws the nails of her free hand up the line of Ruby’s side. “About eighty percent, I’d say,” she admits. “The other twenty percent is just enjoying freedom again.”

Ruby laughs, but it quickly turns into another moan as Sapphire sucks a nipple into her mouth again. Sapphire registers an intimate ache of her own when she feels the inside of Ruby’s strong thighs quiver. Her partner is wetter than she was just a few minutes ago; Sapphire doesn’t have to change her light caressing to know that.

“It’s even hotter in reality,” she says as her gaze flicks up to watch Ruby’s expressive face with interest. “If I knew you were this sensitive to teasing, I would have done so much more of it.”

“My best kept secret,” Ruby manages to quip. The illusion is quickly shattered as she gasps and bites her lower lip. Sapphire swears she feels Ruby pulse over her fingers. “Fuck, I don’t know whether I want you to do this forever or just start fingering me already.”

Sapphire is fascinated. “Could you finish from just this?”

“No.” Though Ruby says it, she’s started panting and bracing one arm against the backrest of the chair. “But give me ten minutes and I’ll probably start begging for it.”

All of the moisture in Sapphire’s mouth seems to have abandoned her, otherwise she would probably be salivating right now.

“You don’t say.” She traces a single finger along the seam of her partner’s vulva through the dampening spandex. At the same time, she nuzzles at Ruby’s solar plexus.

“Or maybe I’ll start now, you never know,” Ruby jokes breathily. She tries to sink into Sapphire’s hand, but considering their position it’s easier for Sapphire to move away than it is for Ruby to follow.

Sapphire hums playfully, tilting her head to bite softly at the side of a sweet little breast. She strokes along the stockier woman’s side, delighting in every shortened breath and shifting muscle. Ruby’s body is marble wrapped in silk, her solid form encased in supple smoothness, and Sapphire doesn’t think that she will ever be able to get enough of that.

Ruby lets out a very vocal moan when Sapphire rubs the entirety of her palm between her thighs, and then hisses when it’s gone all too soon. Sapphire offers no apologies as she opens her lips over Ruby’s breastbone, kissing at nothing in particular, just because she loves the taste.

“Sapph…” comes the needy groan.

It’s funny, Sapphire thinks as Ruby braces her other arm against the chair and shifts to brush the curve of one breast against Sapphire’s cheek. She can _feel_ the intensity of Ruby’s arousal, can sense that she wants more than this, but Ruby isn’t asking for it. She can’t possibly be contented with just this touch, and yet one would think that if she wasn’t she’d be vocalizing her desire for something else, something _more_. If their positions were reversed…

Well, if their positions were reversed Sapphire would have climaxed already, and been well on her way to another one, but that’s where they differ with sex. Ruby doesn’t mind the building anticipation—if Sapphire wants to spend an hour working Ruby over, then she’s welcome to it. Unlike Sapphire, she can’t usually orgasm more than once, so she likes to make the most of it.

Sapphire has always liked satisfying Ruby, especially since the stronger woman is so damn good at reducing her to a mewling orgasmic puddle—it’s only fair to develop the same level of proficiency, right?—but these last couple years she’s found that she sincerely enjoys drawing things out. Since Ruby finishes so much less often than she does, making it happen becomes something special, a technique that Sapphire has slowly but surely been turning into an art.

That being said, for all that Ruby isn’t asking for much, Sapphire still has her own plans. She grasps her lover by the wonderful curve of her posterior and drags her in until their torsos are flush and Sapphire is more or less at eye level with the anatomy in question, chin propped up on Ruby’s sternum.

“Yes, Ruby?” she queries innocently—well, perhaps it would have been innocent, if not for the gratuitous way that she squeezes the ass so conveniently in her palms and roves around to cup just under it.

Ruby makes a sound in her throat that shoots straight to Sapphire’s groin, but this doesn’t stop her quads from flexing as she leans back just enough to take hold of her own breast and press an erect nipple into Sapphire’s lower lip. She doesn’t say anything, simply watches with eyes like flowing liquid honey. Her dark cheeks are flushed just enough for Sapphire to notice, and it makes the smattering of freckles across her nose and cheekbones to stand out as starkly as her wildly curled hair and the signature red ribbon she has tied around her forehead.

In that moment, Sapphire wants nothing more than to surge up and kiss each and every spot of melanin, but she nonetheless obliges in the silent request and takes the proffered anatomy between her lips. Ruby sighs as Sapphire’s tongue swirls about the delicate skin of her areola. Her breath catches when Sapphire seals her mouth around a nipple and sucks hard. She _keens_ when Sapphire reaches up and begins to play with the breast she’s been neglecting.

Ruby can only tolerate this treatment for so long before she’s grabbing Sapphire by the chin and hungrily mashing their lips together, bearing down, cinching Sapphire’s thighs between her knees to hold her here. Sapphire submits to this, enjoying the eager taste of her partner’s tongue.

However, she also has to smirk at the high pitched gasp that Ruby makes when fingers stroke between her thighs again. The spandex is very much damp now, and humidity seems to radiate from Ruby’s sex like the glow of coals in the bed of a bonfire.

“You okay, baby?” Sapphire coos.

The look on Ruby’s face causes the ache of Sapphire’s own arousal to intensify. Her partner can wait, is good at it, but Sapphire doesn’t know how much longer she herself can last without some kind of tangible satisfaction.

“Did you actually have a plan, or were you just going to torture me all night?” asks Ruby, panting and leaning over her. There isn’t near as much venom in her voice as you’d think—in fact, her tone is quite light.

Actually, it’s almost _suggesting_.

Sapphire leans up and presses a light, affectionate kiss to her partner’s chin, the corner of her mouth, her happily reciprocating lips. “What if this _was_ a part of my plan?” she wonders with a raunchy grin, trailing a hand up one lean side again and taking pride at the shiver this inspires. “Would you be complaining then?”

“Probably, yeah.”

Sapphire laughs. It shatters the erotic tension she’s been working to build, but Ruby is so certain and unapologetic that she can’t help herself.

“Would you get with the program already?” she says somewhat indignantly, giving Ruby’s side a sharp pat of disapproval. She’s still laughing, though. The grin that Ruby’s displaying right now makes her want to melt, and she can’t resist the urge to wind her arms around the stockier woman’s torso and initiate a long, drawn out kiss that holds so much more emotion than lust.

Nevertheless, when it ends Sapphire gives her lover’s glorious ass one last squeeze and tilts her head back to murmur, “I actually did have something in mind, though. Want to come to bed with me, and not sleep at all for once?”

Ruby snorts. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Still, she gives Sapphire’s lips one last peck before sliding from her lap and onto her own two feet. The movement inspires a nearly-imperceptible shudder, presumably from the sensitivity of her arousal, but Sapphire is so in tune with Ruby’s body language that she couldn’t have missed it if she tried.

Admittedly, Sapphire isn’t too far off from that herself, but that’s not the point.

She gives Ruby a soft slap on the butt to get her moving towards their bedroom—and go on ahead so Sapphire can enjoy the show, of course. She loves Ruby’s every side, but she must admit there is a special charm to this one. Ruby is a sea of smooth, rippling movement and beautifully sculpted glutes. From the slope of her shoulders to the sturdy build of her hips, Sapphire enthusiastically adores it all.

She’s really missed this. Admiring Ruby from afar with no possibility for the reprieve of closeness is only fun for so long. If Sapphire’s being honest, it’s only fun about as long as it takes to get her into their bedroom, flick on the lights, push her onto the comforter and rummage through a dresser drawer.

When Sapphire reveals her endgame, Ruby’s eyebrows shoot up and she pushes herself onto her elbows (inadvertently causing her cute little breasts to jut out like eager sentries, Sapphire is quick to note).

Sapphire glances at the harness dangling from her fingers, suddenly second guessing herself. “What, too much?”

“Actually, no,” says Ruby conversationally. “I just thought you had something else in mind.”

Indeed, her expression has just settled into something Sapphire can only describe as _molten_. She finds herself shivering palpably in response. Ruby is a passionate individual, and there’s nothing quite like being on the receiving end of her most famished and vehement gaze. Some might become self-conscious, but it only makes Sapphire feel sexy and powerful. It takes some effort to resist climbing into bed and demanding the satisfaction she knows Ruby can provide.

Sapphire has to force herself to _slow down_ as she sets the harness on the foot of the bed and removes the comfortable lounge pants she’s been living in for the last few days. Slink out of them, that’s it. Be seductive about it—even sweat pants can be lingerie if you leave them on the floor just right. There’s no rush here, just enjoy the way she’s looking at you. It will all be worth it in the end, if you take your time.

The way Ruby looks at her makes her want to hurry like a randy teenager, though. It makes her positively pang with desire.

Sapphire can wait serenely for a great many things, but when it comes to sex patience is not one of her virtues.

Her long sleeved shirt is going to be harder to take off in a seductive manner. Shimmy out of the arm holes first, or just go for it and try to shuck the whole thing off at once?

Well, she’s not wearing a bra right now (after all, who needs one when you’ve been stuck at home translating all day?) so she supposes it doesn’t matter how, as long as the shirt comes off in the end.

Shucking it is.

The way the heat of Ruby’s gaze follows her movements makes everything worth it. Sapphire can’t find it in herself to be self-conscious about her daisy patterned cotton panties and outgrown leg hair when she’s being given such a powerfully lustful look by someone she herself wants so badly. If Ruby doesn’t care—and she _really_ doesn’t seem to, if the flush darkening her cheeks is indicative of anything—then neither does Sapphire.

For all that every part of her is screeching to kick off the undies and clamber eagerly into bed, Sapphire has the restraint and, she thinks, the tact to hook the elastic of her panties and drag them down her legs in a way that makes Ruby’s breath catch audibly. She meets Ruby’s gaze as she holds the dampened underwear up with one finger and pointedly drops it onto the carpet.

Ruby’s lips part, and the smallest of moans, drenched in anticipation, leaks out.

Sapphire forces herself to be languid about approaching, pressing her knees into the mattress and crawling over her partner with painful slowness. She’s aching for some kind of tangible attention, can feel the wet lips of her vulva brushing together as she moves, and though it’s not exactly part of the plan forming in her mind’s eye she still lets out a small groan of relief when Ruby cups her jaw and draws her in for the kind of kiss that leaves her insides scrubbed raw with lust. Sapphire doesn’t resist, simply closes her eyes and opens herself up to it. She relishes the way that Ruby’s big hands curve around her waist, the back of her thigh. She responds readily when she is hauled to hover above the darker woman, arms and legs caging her in. Ruby’s lips taste of wanting, but there is no desperate zeal in her. She isn’t going to beg for more than this—for all that Sapphire can feel the heat between her spandex-clad thighs, she is going to let Sapphire do what she wants.

Good.

Feeling empowered by this level of trust and authority, Sapphire shifts so she can pin Ruby’s arms down by the wrists with one hand, makes it so the latter can’t reach her, is relegated only to sight and sensation. She allows the kiss to continue for a little while longer before breaking off and mouthing at the junction between Ruby’s throat and shoulder. She rolls one cute breast under her palm, bites down gently at a tendon. She smirks a little at the way the muscles in Ruby’s arms twitch when she slides a knee up between her legs. A small whine escapes, but it becomes a moan when Sapphire sits on one of her thick thighs and rolls her hips down.

Oh, wait, the moan is hers.

When she pulls away, there is a shiny damp patch on Ruby’s shorts. Even that one moment of attention is enough to make her pant, already craving more. “No, let me,” she says when Ruby’s hands start twisting out from under hers, clearly aiming to reach down and start fingering. Sapphire gives her partner a little peck on the lips in gratitude for the offer even as she re-pins both arms to the bed—by the biceps, this time. Her waist length blonde hair swings down and around them, pooling on the comforter beside Ruby’s head, encapsulating them in an intimate little booth.

“You sure?” asks Ruby. Her voice is a little tight, though whether from restrained arousal or disbelief Sapphire can’t tell.

Nonetheless, Sapphire hums and nods. She kisses the shorter woman again, longer this time, imparting promise as much as affection. “I have a plan, remember?”

Ruby lets out a little huff of laughter, but it changes into a grunt when Sapphire shifts to straddle her waist and grinds down again. Ruby’s navel is firm and warm, and the sensation of it against her vulva is interesting and erotic.

“I can see how wet you are from here,” Ruby remarks. Since Sapphire is still holding her arms down, she lifts her own hips experimentally, but Sapphire’s sitting too far up for it to do any good.

“I don’t doubt it,” says Sapphire. That’s about the time she decides she can’t resist anymore. She lets go of Ruby’s arms with a warning look—I’m pinning them with my knees if you don’t stay put—and straightens up. She hooks her hair behind her ears (getting it out of the way, making sure there are no obstructions), before she reaches down to spread herself apart with two fingers. There is a slick noise as she uses her other hand to play with her labia, tracing the entrance to her own vagina before travelling up to rub at her clitoris. She groans and bites at her kiss-softened lower lip, tilts her hips so Ruby can see everything.

The high pitched hiccup of longing below her inspires a fresh wave of lubrication, and Sapphire grins as she touches herself. She has to remind herself not to linger on the clitoris too long; she doesn’t want to finish just yet. The look on Ruby’s face as she watches Sapphire finger herself instead is absolutely worth it.

Sapphire twitches when Ruby’s hands move, about ready to make good on her wordless threat from earlier, but all Ruby does is brace her wide, hot palms on Sapphire’s legs, and that’s okay. Sapphire doesn’t mind being held onto, and she definitely doesn’t mind the subconscious stroking of her thighs. Just as long as Ruby behaves beyond that.

Honestly, it’s hard to pace herself. Sapphire knows what her body likes, and can provide it for herself readily. She’s also already waited much longer than usual for an orgasm. It would be so easy…

But there again, if she finished she wouldn’t have Ruby looking at her like this anymore, with eyes wide open—not wanting to miss a thing—and breathing heavy despite the lack of stimulation, tinged with a slight whine of want.

Perhaps it’s funny to say, but Sapphire never feels more attractive than in times like these, when Ruby is watching her like she’s the only worthwhile thing that exists in this world. She’s not prone to orgasms induced from fingering alone, but when Ruby utters a faint moan she has to withdraw her fingers for a moment to allow herself to slide back down the orgasmic hill she had started climbing.

Of course, it won’t do to let Ruby know this is anything less than intentional, so Sapphire stalls even further by putting her fingers in her mouth and very obviously licking them clean. She enjoys the taste of herself—and while it’s true she prefers tasting it on Ruby’s tongue than her own fingers, seeing the way Ruby swallows is almost as rewarding.

Fuck, she _really_ wants to finish with those eyes looking at her like this.

She’s slow about fingering herself again, partly to resist the temptation of climax and also because she’s getting off on the way Ruby’s eyes follow her playing with her own breasts, stroking her own sides. At one point Sapphire puts her hands over where Ruby’s are on her thighs and offers a brief, affectionate squeeze, but she does not show any outward acknowledgement that she’s being watched beyond that.

When her fingers return to her vulva, she’s much wetter than before. There is a conspicuous noise as she spreads herself again, showing off. Ruby hisses, and Sapphire feels the grip on her thighs tighten.

She grins as she rubs the flat of her fingers over her labia, pointedly avoiding her clitoris and the orgasm she knows she won’t be able to stop once she starts over there. The slick sounds these movements produce make her grunt and bite her lip as much as the physical sensation. Hearing herself this aroused is, oddly enough, even more arousing. “What, did you want this to be you?” she asks, breathy but nonetheless playful.

_“Yes.”_

The sheer passion in Ruby’s voice, and the way it pitches _down_ instead of up—the force of the fire in her eyes—causes something poignant to sizzle at the base of Sapphire’s spine.

“Ngh, fuck,” Sapphire mutters as she loses her composure. She plunges two fingers inside of herself and fingers hard. Ruby’s better at it, if she’s being honest—she can’t quite get the angle she prefers when she’s doing it herself—but it’s a hell of a lot better than nothing.

Sapphire is one of those people who can’t finish without clitoral stimulation. There have been a few exceptions, of course—the first time Ruby found her g-spot, for example—but by and large this is a rule her body reliably follows. That being said, she knows that no matter how thoroughly she fingers herself she isn’t going to come, and she uses this to her advantage as she makes Ruby watch. The slick sounds that accompany her movements only serve to make her pant hard, work faster, to _burn_ with need. She doesn’t give in, though. She wants to wait until Ruby is gripping her thighs almost tightly enough to bruise, all but squirming, before she lets herself finish.

It takes a couple minutes more than Sapphire thought she had in her before Ruby is at that point.

 _“Sapphire.”_ She’s not even being touched, and Ruby’s already moaning. It’s the sexiest damn thing Sapphire has ever heard. Still fingering herself, she moves her other hand from where it had been fondling her own breast (trying to stay occupied) and starts rubbing at her poor aching clitoris.

She has never been so happy to finally reach orgasm. It hits her harder than usual, causes her to convulse and groan loudly, to breathe as though she’s finished running a marathon. She bends over, resting on Ruby while she recovers, still gently rubbing at her clitoris to take advantage of the last few waves of pleasure.

_“Fuck.”_

That isn’t her, that’s Ruby. She’s holding Sapphire by the waist now, her entire body tense with restraint. When Sapphire lifts her head, she is immediately devoured by a kiss, and while she’s still breathing unsteadily she responds in kind, bracing her arms on either side of her lover’s head and bearing down with the kind of passion one typically doesn’t find post-orgasm. Sapphire is just getting started, though. She can already feel herself pulsing, wanting more, ready to be stimulated to orgasm again.

“So,” Sapphire croons when the kiss has lost most of its most potent zeal. Their lips rub lightly together as she trails one hand down Ruby’s partially bared stomach and wriggles it between them. “Are you ready for me now?”

She loses what little control she has reestablished over her breath when she feels how much Ruby has soaked through her shorts, and takes immense satisfaction in the way Ruby gasps when the pads of Sapphire’s fingers drag over the conspicuous wet patch.

“I’d say so, yeah,” Ruby says, and while her tone is light—almost joking—her voice is airy and pinched with want.

Sapphire tilts her head and kisses her partner’s jaw, tilts even more to mouth at her throat. Ruby shivers as Sapphire rubs a little harder through the spandex. She keeps this up for a long minute, taking acute note of the way Ruby leans into the lips and tongue on her neck. Sapphire only pauses long enough to order in a husky murmur, “Take off the pants and get on your hands and knees.”

The only way to describe Ruby’s next flurry of movement is to call it a scramble. Sapphire is rolled off, and the next thing she knows Ruby is in the requested position, naked as the day she was born, and panting slightly in anticipation.

Sapphire has to laugh as she sits up and gives her partner’s bottom an affectionate pat. “You’re so cute when you’re obedient.”

“You know, I seem to recall a promise to—” Ruby’s snark is cut off with a sharp intake of breath and a bodily shudder when Sapphire slips a finger inside of her. There is no fanfare or warning besides the soft stroke along her rear.

Sapphire, for her part, can only make an appreciative sound at how _ready_ Ruby is. She knew Ruby was aroused, felt it through her clothing, but she doesn’t think she’s ever made the darker woman this wet before.

Her idea had been to tease with only one finger for a while, but considering how slick Ruby is she probably doesn’t feel the teasing as acutely as Sapphire would prefer. She adds another finger, and is rewarded with a small, high pitched grunt and a gentle bowing of the spine. Ruby is hot and sleek and pulsing around her, and Sapphire fucking loves it.

She sinks in up to the knuckles, even as she leans around and puts her lips by her lover’s ear. She murmurs, “Aren’t you going to start begging me, Ruby?” She draws her fingers almost all the way out, noticing how much colder it is without the intimate heat of a vagina encasing them, and smirks a little at the noise of loss that this inspires.

“What, and ruin all the fun you’re having torturing me?” comes the breathy quip. Her breath catches when Sapphire pushes back inside.

“Suit yourself.” It doesn’t suit the mood at all, but Sapphire still can’t resist the urge to kiss Ruby’s ear and leave a series of much smaller kisses on her shoulder and side as she moves back. She has to admit, Ruby’s odd streak of defiance is arousing, in its own way.

At this point Sapphire knows Ruby’s body as well as her own. She knows that she will always earn a moan if she quirks her fingers just so, and if she can’t find that angle this other one works almost as well. There are a handful of places that need to be to stimulated fairly thoroughly in order to make Ruby orgasm, but if teasing is the goal then visiting all of them is the way to go.

Needless to say, Sapphire does not linger in any one place long, and she keeps moving until Ruby is hanging her head and her thighs are quivering, until soft squeaks keep leaking from her lips, and when Sapphire draws her fingers out one final time she earns such a pitiful whine of longing.

She rubs her palms along her partner’s hips and down the strong pillars of her legs, leans over until her nipples are brushing into Ruby’s spine and her pelvis is pressed into the wonderful curve of her ass. Sapphire snuffles through the mass of curls until she can put her lips by Ruby’s ear again.

“Are you ready to beg now?” she wonders.

Ruby grunts, and Sapphire initially takes it as a sign of further defiance, but then she hears the soft, “Please, Sapph?”

It’s all she wants.

She pats Ruby’s hips and nuzzles into her curly head. “That’s my girl.”

Ruby is not difficult to pleasure. In fact, she can finish from just about anything, but her most potent orgasms tend to be inspired by penetration—particularly, as Sapphire discovered a little more than a year ago, from strap-ons. Sapphire doesn’t mind receiving, exactly, but she definitely prefers giving, so they bought the toy with Ruby’s preferences in mind. She doesn’t need it to be thick, but rather for it to go deep enough to brush against her sensitive cervix, and a little bit of texture never hurts either. So, long and lightly ribbed strap-on it is.

Sapphire was the last one to use the harness, so it’s still set to fit her. The toy is a little chilly as it settles between the lips of her vulva for additional stability, but it’ll warm up soon enough.

They don’t actually need it right now, because Ruby’s still so wet, but that doesn’t last and Sapphire has no illusions about how little she will want to stop everything and grab some lube once they get going and things start drying out, so she coats the toy in oil-based lube now. It’s largely preemptive, sure, but it’ll pay off in the end.

She can’t help the way she huffs in anticipation when she stands on her knees behind Ruby, the head of the sleeked toy pressing lightly against the entrance to her vagina. Sapphire leans forward, pressing but not actually going inside.

Ruby groans and shifts her weight. She might actually be starting to get impatient. “God, Sapphire, _please.”_

She’s such a sucker for desperate pleas, she really is.

The sound that Ruby makes when Sapphire pushes the dildo all the way in makes the concession entirely worth it. Sapphire draws back, almost all the way out, and then rocks gently back in. She’s making sure there aren’t any dry spots, no places for toy and skin to stick painfully together. When all she hears is a shuddering sigh of want, and a gratuitously slick noise, she deems it okay to pick up the pace.

Going too fast would make this end sooner rather than later, and Sapphire wants to be at this a while, so she sets a pace that’s just this side of satisfying. There is enough movement that Ruby’s breath catches, and she mewls and groans when Sapphire moves in and the tip of the dildo grazes the deepest parts of her—enough that she won’t complain or demand more—but not enough for Ruby to actually finish from.

Conveniently, this pace is enough for _her_. The base of the strap on, besides being seated in her vulva, keeps grinding against her clitoris as she moves. She grunts and moans as her hips rock, and the sight of Ruby’s arcing spine and quivering limbs only serves to push her further towards the edge. Her hands, which have been braced on Ruby’s hips, shift to spread her cheeks. The sight of the subtly ridged blue toy sliding slickly in and out, gripped by her partner’s labia like they are loathe to let it go, in combination with the whine that Ruby’s just made, is enough to bring her to her second orgasm of the night. She doesn’t stop, though. Sapphire doesn’t need to—in fact, continuing right on through the orgasm makes it last a little bit longer, and segues directly into the buildup for the next one.

She’s breathing hard, with the chill of sweat on her shoulders, when she feels a hot trickle down the inside of one flexing thigh.

Ruby’s not the only ridiculously wet one here. Two weeks of work-induced celibacy are clearly taking their toll. Their skin claps together as Sapphire loses herself and speeds up, and the thick sounds of arousal echo between the applause. Ruby’s head hangs from her shoulders as she moans Sapphire’s name, and Sapphire climaxes again.

She notices that Ruby’s limbs are trembling quite badly, then. Sapphire rolls her partner onto her back and settles between her powerful legs. She’s much gentler about entering this time, and they both let out breathy groans from this new angle. Ruby’s voice is beginning to tinge with desperation for release, but she nevertheless responds with open lips and a welcoming tongue when Sapphire sinks in as deep as she can and stretches up to kiss her. It’s a hot and heavy kiss, too full of lust for there to be much by way of coordination. They both breathe loudly through their noses, too stubborn to separate long enough to properly catch their breath.

Sapphire relishes the way that Ruby’s fingers tangle in her blonde tresses to pull her close, how her hips rise and fall to gently keep riding the dildo Sapphire herself has stopped moving. Slowly, Sapphire begins to move with her. They’re holding each other too close for the pronounced thrusting of earlier, but the ridges on the toy make it so that Ruby hisses and keens all the same.

It’s hard to say if the kiss officially ends or if it just devolves into sloppy pecks that are easy to distract from, but when it does Sapphire ducks down to lick at Ruby’s neck. She bites gently on her shoulder, reaches up to squeeze one cute little breast.

The sound Ruby makes as Sapphire squeezes her nipple is positively electric. Sapphire lifts her head and meets her partner’s honeyed gaze. She reaches up to cup Ruby’s cheek, stroke her thumb over the ridge of a cheekbone. They kiss, just once. “You’re still shaking,” she murmurs in reference to the unsteady thighs she’s now seated between. “You okay?”

Ruby nods, uses her hold on Sapphire’s hair to pull her down for another swift, sloppy peck, all lips and swiping tongue. “You try getting worked over like this and see if you don’t shake a little,” she says, and while her tone is light her voice is still airy, on the brink. Her freckled cheeks are flushed, and her eyes are fully dilated. The thighs that Sapphire is leaning between are solid and welcoming despite their trembling. Unbreakable, radiating heat. Her lips are swollen and darkened from Sapphire’s abuse. While the red ribbon around her forehead and afro is still there, it has been knocked askew.

Sapphire gazes at Ruby now, splayed out on the mattress like this, and she falls in love all over again. She adores this woman, everything about her, and she missed spending time with her _so fucking much_ these last few weeks of nonstop work.

Sapphire lifts herself up on her elbows, rearranges her limbs so she has better leverage. Ruby’s fingers fall from her hair and stroke down her sides instead. Something about the way she does it makes Sapphire feel gorgeous, though she can’t say why, specifically.

“Do you want to finish?” asks Sapphire.

Ruby lets out a throaty little moan that cracks higher about midway through. “God, _please.”_

Sapphire grins even as she makes a pronounced push with her hips, one that is met with a very wet noise of encouragement. “No need to call me god, baby. Sapph is just fine.”

“Oh, shut up,” Ruby groans even as she arches into the contact. Her muscular thighs spread just that little bit wider, inviting more. “You should not be able to make jokes like that when you’ve already got me on my back.”

Sapphire bursts out into giggles then, and has to stop as she shakes all over with mirth.

“Hey!” Ruby says it—and she even manages to say it indignantly—but she’s laughing too.

Their bellies and breasts rub comfortably together as Sapphire wriggles up and nudges Ruby’s cheek, wordlessly asking to be kissed again. Her torso is longer than Ruby’s, so this works out better than if their positions had been reversed, but she still has to stretch a little more than she would have normally in order for their bodies to stay connected. That doesn’t change the surge of emotion she feeds into the kiss Ruby so readily provides. It’s a timeless sort of action, a warm rolling rush of lips and tongue, so sweet and soft you lose yourself in it. There is a hearth of emotion burning in Sapphire’s gut that has nothing to do with arousal or lack thereof, the unequivocal safety and comfort of _home_.

“I love you,” she says, shifting to kiss an individual freckle on the slope of her lover’s smooth brown cheekbone.

“I love you too, Sapphy,” Ruby mumbles. She’s smiling like she doesn’t know whether to be amused or flattered, but big hands rove over Sapphire’s rear and snap at the harness straps all the same. Her smile fades, her expression becoming something truly lustful as she looks Sapphire in her one working eye. Her hips lift, fingers gripping Sapphire’s rear. She doesn’t restrain the grunt of pleasure as she shifts along the dildo’s length. “But can you finish what you started now?”

“Oh, you mean this?” Sapphire, who has been sitting with her knees folded on either side of Ruby’s hips, straightens up enough to draw back so far the toy is nearly out, and the whimper of _need_ that this inspires has her skin prickling.

“Yes, exactly that,” Ruby groans. Her hold on Sapphire’s backside tightens, trying to push the toy back in. “Please, Sapph?”

Sapphire tugs on the arms that have come around her and instead pins her lover’s wrists into the mattress on either side of her afro. The tattoo on Ruby’s bicep pulses as her fists clench and unclench, but both arms go limp with submission when Sapphire sinks in again. “This is what you want?” she croons. Her hair slips down over her shoulders as she smiles and leans over. Her dangling breasts brush against Ruby’s sternum, and every breath nudges her belly into her partner’s navel. There is a deliciously sleek sound as her hips begin to roll, though whether it’s coming from her or Ruby at this point she can’t quite tell the difference.

_“Yes.”_

Sapphire earns a desperate gasp of a moan when she initiates a more consistent rhythm. Her voice lowers so much that Ruby has to hold her breath to hear the question she asks next, “And you want me to make you come?”

“Yes!”

“Well,” Sapphire murmurs, tightening her hold on her partner’s captive wrists. “Since you’ve asked _so_ nicely…”

She doesn’t give Ruby time to come up with a quip before she picks up the pace just enough to make both of them pant hard. This back and forth thrusting isn’t exactly what you’d call intuitive for her, and to be honest it’s quite tiring, but she thinks she does pretty well—at least, Ruby doesn’t seem to be complaining. Her own hips rise to meet the forward motion of the strap on, and when Sapphire does it just right her partner’s powerful torso arches into the softness of Sapphire’s belly as she gasps and moans and closes her eyes. Sometimes her wrists twist under Sapphire’s palms like she wants to reach out and hold onto something, but the next moment they’ve gone cooperatively limp again, perfectly contented with being held down and penetrated.

“Nn—a little bit faster?” Ruby says after a couple minutes of steady rocking. Her voice is high, and breathy, more mewl than anything. “I’m close, Sapph, I’m so close.”

She says this as she tilts her chin back and arcs until her firmly pebbled nipples are brushing Sapphire’s breasts, gasping, her thighs quivering on either side of Sapphire’s knees, and Sapphire can’t say no. She can’t even admit that she doesn’t really know how to go much faster than this while still making it good.

She tries anyway, and she must be doing something right because the way that Ruby groans is different from the rest of the ones Sapphire’s earned tonight. It’s a sound of giving in, one that lets Sapphire know she wasn’t lying about being close, and it goes _straight_ to Sapphire’s groin.

By this point Sapphire is not sure she has much thought to spare on whether or not this is objectively good. She loses herself in what she inspires from her partner, in the sweat that causes their skin to stick together and the somewhat erratic sounds of her own pumping hips. The look and feel of having Ruby under her like this is suddenly and overwhelmingly erotic, and by the time Ruby shudders and lets out a high, choking moan of orgasm Sapphire reaches that edge right along with her.

Panting hard, on this side of collapsing, Sapphire makes tiny rolls of her hips in the aftermath. It makes Ruby grunt and keen with sensitivity, and her own body shiver hard in aftershock. Still, Ruby utters a squeak of loss when the dildo pulls out for the last time.

Sapphire’s hands fumble as she unbuckles the harness from a mixture of weariness and haste, but as soon as she’s put it to the side—she’ll clean it later—she pitches into Ruby’s welcoming embrace of strong arms and huffing, uncontrolled breathing. They kiss anyway, legs tangling and breasts heaving against each other. It’s sloppy and not at all coordinated, but it’s good, it’s so good.

Ruby laughs when they finally pull away from each other long enough for conversation. “So I’m not the only one with cotton mouth.”

Sapphire snorts. Of all the things Ruby could be remarking upon, _this_ is what she chooses to say? “Are you surprised?”

“Well, no,” she admits. She cranes her head. “Is that water bottle still on the side table?”

The one that Sapphire keeps around for more or less this reason? “Yeah, I’ll go get it.”

It’s a liter bottle, and it’s about three quarters of the way full, so it’s enough to split comfortably. Sapphire needed it more than she thought, because as soon as she’s had her half she notices herself blinking a little bit easier (though her prosthetic eye must still be facing forward, because Ruby hasn’t commented on it). No longer having such a dry tongue is pretty nice, too, she must admit.

Ruby also seems to have gotten her second wind, because after she puts the water bottle back she is crawling over Sapphire and leaving openmouthed kisses on her collar, conspicuously avoiding her ticklish neck. Sapphire hums appreciatively and tilts her chin up. She doesn’t miss the palms that rub over her abdomen and down her hips.

“How many times did you finish while wearing that thing?” asks Ruby just before she leaves a wet kiss on the crook of Sapphire’s shoulder.

“Three.”

Her partner pauses, and Sapphire finds herself gazing into dilated honey eyes. “Only three times?”

For Sapphire, who can orgasm often and easily, it really isn’t all that much.

“They were pretty powerful!” she still says, albeit with an air of playful defensiveness.

“Huh.” Ruby doesn’t say any more than that as she ducks back down.

“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” she asks as her partner shuffles down and kisses at the top of one breast, palms trailing over the unshaven hair on her thighs.

Ruby lifts her head again. Her curls are wilder than usual, entirely mussed from grinding the back of her head back into the mattress. Her gaze, so full of intent, makes Sapphire’s heart thud loudly.

“I figured you deserved a reward,” she says lightly. “Unless you’d rather not?”

Sapphire reaches up and gives one discombobulated curl a playful tug. “You know I can’t say no to those lips.”

Ruby smirks like she did, in fact, already know the answer to that question. She nevertheless scoots up just enough to press a short kiss to Sapphire’s mouth. She lets out a little laugh when Sapphire licks at her bottom lip to prove her point.

“I can’t be in two places at once, babe,” she says in a husky murmur. Still she allows Sapphire to cup her jaw and kiss her again without complaint, her reciprocation unhurried and sensual. “Where do you want me?”

“Come back when you taste like me,” Sapphire orders, though she still presses one last kiss to that talented mouth. She can’t help herself; she adores Ruby too much not to want to take advantage of this proximity.

“Will do,” her partner murmurs into her lips. Then she’s off, languidly kissing her way back down Sapphire’s torso.

Sapphire can already feel herself winding up in anticipation—while Ruby may not have been the first to give her oral sex, she is hands down the best at it, and despite how often Sapphire has received oral these last five years she still finds herself fantasizing about it when it’s not happening.

If Ruby’s favorite way to orgasm is from penetration, Sapphire’s is from having her clitoris being batted around by Ruby’s tongue. It’s just the way things are.

By the time Ruby hooks both of Sapphire’s knees over her shoulders Sapphire is panting eagerly. Somehow, she doesn’t expect Ruby to lick a strip up the inside of her thigh. Sapphire’s skin is at once chilly from evaporating saliva and tingling with sensation.

“So wet already,” the darker woman remarks with a hint of satisfaction. She traces the line of arousal that tracked down Sapphire’s other thigh with the tip of her finger. “You weren’t joking about how horny you were.”

“I _told_ you,” Sapphire says, though her emphasis on the word is mangled somewhat when Ruby casually pushes the swollen lips of her vulva apart. Sapphire’s thighs flex against the sturdy breadth of her shoulders, and her toes curls. All of a sudden she can’t _think_. “Baby,” she pleads.

“How long have you been this wet?” asks Ruby, playing lightly with one of her labia just enough to cause a very wet sound to reach Sapphire’s ears.

Sapphire groans, and it takes her a moment to formulate the sentence. “God, I don’t know. I’ve probably been fantasizing about you making me scream for the last week straight. Maybe it started then.”

Ruby makes a noise that could have been sympathetic, if not for the fact that she is clearly just as eager to get started.

“Ru,” Sapphire whines. She softly bumps her girlfriend’s cheek with one of her legs.

Ruby turns her head and softly biting at her thigh. She licks and kisses at the spot she’s bitten almost like an apology, but the expression in her eyes tells Sapphire she’s not sorry at all.

God, having those eyes gazing at her like this, just visible over her navel and between her breasts, framed by her thighs, surrounded by her on nearly all sides—it’s so fucking sexy. Sapphire shivers. She’s seen this look before, and she’s been thinking about seeing it again for about as long as she was working on that translation project, but there’s nothing quite like having it happen in person.

“Ruby, I need you to eat me out right now.”

Her voice is breathy and wanton, but it’s all she needs to say. As soon as she orders Ruby to do something, be it to give or receive, it happens. Ruby says that being challenged to do something she knows she is good at is incredibly satisfying, which is just as well because Sapphire frankly gets heady from the sensation of ordering Ruby around.

Which isn’t to say that her brain doesn’t stutter to a halt when her partner’s tongue slips into her vagina, because it absolutely does, but there is also more to it than that.

Ruby is taking her time tonight, Sapphire realizes as she feels the torturously thorough exploration of her vagina. Strong hands have to keep her hips from jerking, as they are wont to do whenever Ruby does something that feels particularly fantastic. Sapphire doesn’t really mind that, though. Being held down and slowly but surely licked apart has a deeply sensual appeal, one that is already bringing her quite close to orgasm.

There was once a time when she was embarrassed to climax so easily from oral sex—especially in this instance, where she’s pretty sure it hasn’t even been ten minutes—but Sapphire doesn’t feel that way anymore. Now she’s just eager to find out how many times Ruby can make her come before she’s spent.

She finishes once from the way Ruby’s tongue keeps prodding into her vagina, once from the way Ruby uses both tongue and forefinger, and three times from having her clitoris suckled while two fingers play with her at an agonizingly slow pace. The last orgasm doesn’t really end, it just keeps going and going and going, rolling waves of pleasure that hit Sapphire in fantastically merciless sets.

By the time Ruby has licked up all of the moisture from her arousal and made a final lingering retreat Sapphire doesn’t know whether to heave a sigh of relief or grab her curly head and send her back down for one last orgasm. Her mind is so hazy with pleasure that she’s more or less forgotten her name and the country she lives in, and she’s pretty sure she’s completely forgotten how to see out of her good left eye.

She blossoms back into the reality of her own flesh and bones when Ruby cages her in with thick thighs and powerful arms and kisses her. Her legs and arms are heavy and weak, but she wraps them around her partner anyway, dragging her down until they are lying together with their bodies pressed flush.

Sapphire loves tasting herself on Ruby’s tongue. There is scarcely anything sexier.

It feels like several minutes of blind, lethargic kissing before she realizes that Ruby is grinning into her lips. She opens her eyes to make sure, and her single working sphere confirms what her mouth has already told her.

“What is so funny?” she asks as she finally releases her hold on Ruby enough to allow the darker woman to roll to the side and lean on one elbow. Her voice is husky, but she’s pretty sure that Ruby catches her meaning anyway.

“You started speaking in Spanish towards the end,” Ruby tells her, still grinning. Her freckles seem to dance over her cheekbones. “Well, mostly. There were definitely a couple of Chinese phrases thrown in there too.”

Sapphire… doesn’t recall this at all. She hadn’t thought she was saying anything Ruby couldn’t understand (though at this point Ruby is pretty fluent in Chinese, and she has a pretty decent working knowledge of Spanish as well; still). “Did I really?” she asks, already starting to giggle. Then, at Ruby’s nod of poorly constrained amusement, she rubs at her own face and laughs some more. “Oh my god, I _would_. I’ve been doing that since this project started!”

“It was kind of cute, not gonna lie,” Ruby tells her, grinning a little bigger.

Sapphire groans and pushes at her girlfriend’s shoulder until she _fwumps_ onto her back. Then she realizes, and says forcefully, “You make a joke about speaking in tongues, Ruby, and I am leaving, I swear to god.”

Ruby bursts out into full, unabashed cackling. “I didn’t even think of that!”

Sapphire smacks her palm against the empty space on her other side. “Damn it!” How is this worse than if Ruby had made the god awful pun on her own?

She lets Ruby keep laughing as she hauls herself up to refill her damn water bottle and hopefully regain some of her dignity. By the time she’s returned Ruby’s cleaned and put away the strap-on and burrowed under the blankets. Sapphire turns out the light before setting the water bottle back on its table and slipping into bed with her.

When they cuddle, it’s typically Ruby who acts as the little spoon. She likes to rest on Sapphire’s breasts and be held, and Sapphire doesn’t mind being her pillow. Tonight, though, Sapphire finds herself being gathered up. She’s too exhausted to protest—and besides, much like the feeling of Ruby being the taller one at her desk earlier, she finds this to be a good change of pace.

Ruby is a great person to hold onto. She’s always so solid and unbreakable in Sapphire’s hands.

“You still stressed out?” she asks as she leans her cheek on the top of Sapphire’s head. She hooks Sapphire’s calf and draws her leg in until it’s resting comfortably between her own.

Sapphire, with her forehead pressed into her girlfriend’s neck and her cheek on one shoulder, her entire body still buzzing in post-orgasmic sensation, is honestly confused by the question for a moment. “Not anymore,” she hums. Her eyelids are heavy now. From this vantage point, she thinks she will be able to sleep for a good long while. “Just never let me take on a project with such a half-assed timeline again.”

Ruby snorts and says, “You got it, babe.” It doesn’t quite sound like she means it, but Sapphire will have to check in the morning.

One of her hands has started massaging a knot in Sapphire’s shoulder. It’s like she’s working magic into Sapphire’s skin, and Sapphire lets out a long slow breath of relaxation.

Well, maybe huge last-minute projects aren’t so bad, if this is how they end.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Facts: I dropped three names in this fic without explanation. Here's what the names mean (according to behindthename.com), and who they refer to!
> 
> Xun = “Fast, sudden” in Chinese = Tourmaline
> 
> Zhi = meaning “will, purpose” and/or “Wisdom, knowledge” in Chinese = Apatite
> 
> An = meaning “peace” in Chinese = Citrine


End file.
